


Eternity (I give to you)

by sammyspreadyourwings



Series: Maycury Week [4]
Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018), Queen (Band)
Genre: Engagement, Established Relationship, Fluff, Freddie Mercury Lives, Implied Relationships, Late 90s, M/M, Romance, Soft Boys, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, True Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-10 23:54:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20536736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sammyspreadyourwings/pseuds/sammyspreadyourwings
Summary: Brian May struggles to figure out what he can give Freddie for his birthday.





	Eternity (I give to you)

**Author's Note:**

> It’s still the 5th. This one took me a minute to actually have time to sit down and write, but it got done. Also this doesn’t Offically take place in the Harmony AU, but. If you want it to, you can make it so.

Brian has never been good with buying gifts. He overthinks them until he ends up putting them back and buying something generic. Like the year he could have bought John a broken down bass, that they could have repaired together (he’s sure it would have sounded off but how fun it would have been) and then instead bought him a very fancy pack of the tea flavor he prefers.

Roger usually takes pity on me and tells him what he can get him. Dinner at some point during the week usually works out for them, or even lunch. They take at least one meal together in the space between their birthdays.

Then there’s Freddie, the absolute love of Brian’s life.

With the success of Queen and money no longer an issue, Freddie has taken to the mindset that if he wants it he will just buy it. Brian doesn’t mind it, however stressful it is when the purchases clutter up the walkways because they aren’t sure where to put them. It simply makes it impossible to buy Freddie a gift with any meaning attached to it.

Dinner and wine is something that they do once a week as a date night and they always got to a nice restaurant. A habit formed back in their Hot Space era and never broken.

He could buy Freddie artwork, but his taste changes with the wind and Brian doesn’t really want to start any kind of disagreement.

Freddie is touched with grand gestures, Brian bought him a star one year, but the paper is pressed between the albums in their music room.

Jewelry and clothes are always better left to Freddie himself. It saves him both the sizing headache and the lecture on combinations and styles. He _likes _fashion, and the grand clothes they pick for stage wear, but when it comes down to it, he can’t pick out the cuts or fabrics that would look good with each other. Freddie has Elton for that most days, either way.

Brian pauses, his pencil tapping on the list of potential gifts. The only thing he had managed to write down that hasn’t been scratched out is jewelry. Freddie wears it, certainly, but it usually is only once before he picks out a new piece. Except there’s one thing… Brian shakes his head. He couldn’t.

He reads through the list. It’s the _only _thing he can think of.

Except that it is so cliché that he can just imagine the ribbing he is going to get for it.

He dials the number before he can think about it.

“Hello?”

“Roger?”  
“That is the number you called,” Roger replies.

“Yes.”

He pauses and stares at the list again.

“B? You call for a reason?” Roger inhales shakily, “did something happen?”

“No.”

“Okay.”

Is he really going to ask Roger? Brian sighs, it _feels _right, and he is running out time to get something together.

“Are you free?”

“Right now?”

“Yes.”

“I can be,” Roger replies, “I was just catching up on my reading. Why?”

“I want to,” Brian bites his lips and glances at the list again, “I want to go ring shopping.”

“Bri?”

“For Freddie.”

“Well, I assumed you weren’t going to propose to a mistress,” Roger laughs.

Brian grimaces and clears his throat.

“Anyway, ring shopping?”

“His birthday is –”

“I know when my best friend’s birthday is. Do you want to buy him a ring? Brian that means… you know what that means.”  
“I do.”  
“Oh, you’re serious. How long?”

“Thirty minutes,” he shrugs.

“You made up your mind in thirty minutes?” Roger barks, “miracles do happen – of course I’ll come with you. I’ll drive. Be over shortly.”

The line goes dead and Brian carefully rips up the list because he knows Freddie likes snooping in his paper’s. Mostly to find songs that he is hiding from him. His plans for a surprise have been ruined more than once because of this habit. It earns him a lot of soft kisses when Freddie learns.

Brian stands and decides that he should look professional. He doesn’t actually know how you’re supposed to look when buying rings. He’s deciding between jackets when Roger knocks on his door.

“Hello – and John too.”

John waves, “Roger called me.”

“Did he tell you why?”

“I assume it’s for Freddie.”  
Brian rolls his eyes and bites his cheek before stepping out and locking the door. Roger is dressed down, except for the dark green suit blazer he is wearing. John looks comfortable in the short sleeve band shirt from their last tour. Brian glances down and his trousers, sharply pressed.

“Come on. We’ll never leave if you start thinking about your fashion. We should get this done before Freddie comes back.”

“He’s doing his solo work, right?”

“I think it’s a meeting about the album cover,” Brian shrugs.

“Well, let’s go,” Roger bounces.

* * *

Brian hasn’t been in a jewelry store since he helped Roger pick out a ring for Dom. He can tell that John remembers the same thing with a tiny grimace on his face. That hadn’t been a great time in their relationship. Even without all the details they refuse to share, Brian can guess how close they came to breaking up.

The clerk greets them with a smile before swaying her hips over. Obviously, they’ve been recognized and Brian spends about four seconds dreading the tabloids getting ahold of this. He’ll have to keep Freddie away from them for a week.

While making sure he doesn’t make it look like he’s having an affair.

“How may I help you?” The woman asks.

“I want to look at the rings?”

“Any occasion?”

Brian shrugs, he doesn’t imagine there’s that much difference between rings. The clerk nods and waves her arm in the direction of one of the display cases. Roger and John both follow him with their hands in their pockets. The rings glitter from the light in the display. There’s just so many of them.

Roger leans over and starts pointing out random rings. Usually, Brian would trust him when it comes to Freddie’s fashion sense, but they all seem wrong. It quickly becomes clear that Roger is just pointing out the most expensive ones he sees.

Not that price matters too much.

John pinches Roger on the side.

“Stop being a nuisance. We’ll let Brian pick and then give him our opinion.”

The clerk smiles setting the rings back in the case.

Brian crouches and starts looking through each ring carefully. He’s drawn to the brilliant yellow diamonds. They remind him of Freddie, and he makes sure to point to the teardrop one. Really, they’re lovely, and Freddie would adore it. Except it’s very blatant as to what it is. He walks down the case, pointing out rings occasionally.

John and Roger both watch the display case fill up. Brian thinks all of them would look lovely, but they Aren’t Perfect.

“This one is nice, Bri,” Roger says holding up a beautiful twisted band, solid gold with tiny diamonds forming leaves.

_Maybe if this was Jim, _Brian frowns.

Roger sets it back, “Brian, whichever one you get. It’ll be loved.”

Brian nods. He knows that. Freddie would be moved by the sentiment and wear the ring proudly. It’s just that Brian wants to be 100 percent satisfied. Which he rarely ever is. John sighs and crosses his arm as he leans against a pillar.

“Brian,” John says, “trust yourself.”

He takes a deep breath. Closing his eyes, he thinks about what Freddie would love. Something simple and elegant. Freddie might be the world’s best frontman and loves extravagance, but Brian’s always loved the way he looks on Saturday mornings when they have nowhere to be. Hair messed by sleep and eyes softened without the make-up, how the shirt hangs off of him because it’s Brian’s but it’s nothing but soft gray cotton.

Brian thinks about how Freddie’s voice sounds the best when it’s soft and the melody is simple. When the song is so beautiful that he doesn’t need vocal acrobatics to sell it.

Freddie to him is Queen’s frontman, but he’s also the man that picks up his cats swaying with them and sings good morning to them in a bathrobe with coffee filling the house in a wakeup call.

He opens his eyes again and looks back at the case. His eyes are drawn to The Ring. When the clerk grabs it and sets it in the middle of the box, both John and Roger lean forward and share secret grins with each other.

“That’s perfect, mate,” Roger says.

John nods, “see, you knew.”

* * *

Brian thumbs the velvet case in his pocket. Freddie wants to stay in tonight. The Big Celebration is tomorrow when more of their guest list could make it, and Brian didn’t have to worry about a hangover on the weekend. Instead, with Phoebe’s help, he made a simple dinner. He picked out a menu that went with Freddie’s favorite wine and found their good candle holders.

“Happy birthday, my love.”

Freddie smiles before kissing him on the cheek, “this is lovely. Thank you, Brimi.”

Brian smiles and guides Freddie to the table, pulling out the chair before sitting across from them.

“You know, this reminds me of our first date,” Freddie says unfolding the napkin.

He grins. Their first date had been on the floor of Freddie’s room in the flat he shared with Roger, too scared to go out. They had pulled the card table in and used cheap scented candles to make it feel more romantic. The dishes had been take-out containers and paper plates. Brian had spilled their cheap wine on his white shirt two minutes into the meal and jumped every time Freddie so much as looked at him.

Tonight, they use fancy china and drink wine that Brian has trouble pronouncing in a mansion with velvet curtains and a central heating system that _works. _Unlike the Brian who had just stopped curling his hair, and still felt too nervous in his own body much less touch someone a stunning as Freddie, Brian places his hand down on the table face up. He twists their legs together with ease bought by time. Freddie clasps their hands together.

The fact that he loves Freddie Mercury has never changed between the years.

“Good. I wanted to remind you where we came from,” Brian said.

“Ah yes, I wanted to be reminded of the awkward guitarist and too shy singer.”

“Reflection is good.”

“The future is better.”

Brian grins again. The fork clinks quietly on his plate, “about that?”

“Did you finally unlock time travel, Dr. May?”

“Ah, that mystery still eludes me,” Brian laughs, “but I do know who I’d like to spend my future with.”

Freddie lifts an eyebrow.

His hand wraps around the box and pulls it out before sliding it across the table. Freddie’s eyes widen, and he drops his fork before reaching out and grabbing it. He detangles their hands to pick it up and flip open the lid.

A double-banded ring sits in soft yellow silk. He had chosen the color specifically because of how it reminds him of Freddie. One band is white enamel and the other black. They’re connected by a strip of silver where they cross each other. Freddie picks it up, as though he is afraid it will break.

“Brian?”

Brian wets his lip, his heart attempting to beat out of his chest. He doesn’t think that Freddie will reject him, but this means so much to him.

“I couldn’t think what else to give you,” Brian says quietly, “but then I thought that I could promise _this _forever.”

Freddie holds the ring to his face, “it’s beautiful.”

“I know I promised forever, already. Back when we were younger.”

“Under those horribly scratchy hotel sheets in Sydney, I remember.”

They both get lost in their thoughts for a moment. Brian had promised forever and then very nearly broke it a few months later when he got sick in the states.

Freddie drops the ring in his hand and then extends his fingers towards Brian.

He slips it onto the middle finger.

“Oh?”

“When we can finally get married, I’ll put a ring there.”

He smiles at Freddie’s surprised laugh. Brian squeezes his hand before dropping it. Freddie lifts the hand to his face, staring at the tangled bands, twisting it every which way.

“It feels heavy,” Freddie says after a few minutes.

“That’s because it’s a promise of forever.”

“You give me forever this year, what will you give me next year?” Freddie teases.

Brian shrugs, “I’ll promise forever then, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> And how was that. I'm having fun writing fluff for no reason, but we'll get back to the Plot fics soon enough /wink. I hope you enjoyed!! As always leave your thoughts and comments below or come talk to me on tumblr.


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